Essays on customer retention strategy on online service platforms

By: Material type: Computer fileComputer filePublication details: Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management 2024Description: 91 p. illSubject(s): DDC classification:
  • TH 2025-10
Online resources: Summary: Abstract While digital platforms adopting a multi-sided marketplace as a model facilitate matching and information sharing between buyers and sellers, they continue to face disintermediation risk wherein buyers defect with a matched service provider, continuing subsequent transactions outside the platform. Such transactions have adverse economic implications for the platform. Therefore, digital platforms strive to reduce disintermediation. To this end, this thesis examines the role of having a layer of human agents, over and above the usual digital layer, as a cushion against disintermediation. Specifically, in the first essay, I draw on the Mangle model to theorize antecedents (type of service and the presence of third-party insurance) of the customers' adoption of the human agent layer. I test these effects using a dataset from a car aftermarket service platform. Results reveal that a customer’s likelihood of interacting with the human agent is higher for services with a perceived functional value than social value. Findings also illustrate that customers with third-party insurance are more likely to interact with the platform’s human agent. In the second essay, I investigate the consequences (repurchase decisions and cost implications) of the customers' adoption of the human agent layer. I show that the incidence of customer repurchases interacting with human agents increases by 37.5%. I demonstrate the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between the use of the human-agent layer and customer repurchases. Finally, I also illustrate the cost benefits of deploying human agents for the platform. Collectively, these findings offer several managerial and theoretical insights concerning the use of human agents to curtail disintermediation.
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Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Thesis (FPM) Vikram Sarabhai Library Non-fiction Thesis TH 2025-10 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Not for Issue (Restricted Access) CD002758

Thesis Advisory Committee

Prof. Sourav Borah
Prof. Adrija Majumdar
Prof. Swanand Deodhar

Abstract

While digital platforms adopting a multi-sided marketplace as a model facilitate matching and information sharing between buyers and sellers, they continue to face disintermediation risk wherein buyers defect with a matched service provider, continuing subsequent transactions outside the platform. Such transactions have adverse economic implications for the platform. Therefore, digital platforms strive to reduce disintermediation. To this end, this thesis examines the role of having a layer of human agents, over and above the usual digital layer, as a cushion against disintermediation.
Specifically, in the first essay, I draw on the Mangle model to theorize antecedents (type of service and the presence of third-party insurance) of the customers' adoption of the human agent layer. I test these effects using a dataset from a car aftermarket service platform. Results reveal that a customer’s likelihood of interacting with the human agent is higher for services with a perceived functional value than social value. Findings also illustrate that customers with third-party insurance are more likely to interact with the platform’s human agent.
In the second essay, I investigate the consequences (repurchase decisions and cost implications) of the customers' adoption of the human agent layer. I show that the incidence of customer repurchases interacting with human agents increases by 37.5%. I demonstrate the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between the use of the human-agent layer and customer repurchases. Finally, I also illustrate the cost benefits of deploying human agents for the platform. Collectively, these findings offer several managerial and theoretical insights concerning the use of human agents to curtail disintermediation.

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